My first semester at the University Of Maryland has been informative, fun, surprising, exciting, and filled with challenges. Although I initially knew college came with unexpected changes that often lead to struggles, I had decided earlier to have an open mindset to make the best of my time at UMD as well as learn influenceable aspects from this new environment. At first glance, just like any other freshman, I had some expectations, but now that I am almost through with my first semester, some of these expectations felt dreamy but I was able to pull forth and deal with what reality had to offer.
At first sight, the new social construct, the difference in the study environment, as well as the level of responsibility I encountered were quite unfamiliar and made me a little anxious. However, once I started interacting with my environment, this anxiousness was soon deemed and I soon began to make the best of what UMD had to offer. In terms of socializing and making new friends, my experience at UMD has been pretty friendly thus far. The people I encounter daily at UMD are very friendly, kind, and approachable. When in an unfamiliar environment, it helps to have kind-hearted people with which I could reach out for help when in times of stress and challenges. Adding to this, while in high school, I had always visualized my college life to be entertaining, making new friends, exploring new aspects of life, partying, going out with friends, keeping good grades, learning new aspects about myself, and overall just living my best life. However, when the reality of college as well as its responsibilities kicked in, fantasies soon became challenges. The first challenge I encountered in college which created a barrier that made some of my expectations difficult to accomplish was creating a balance between my schoolwork and my personal life. As a commuter, this challenge was a lot more difficult to accomplish and made my first few weeks of school quite rough and overwhelming. With the help of upperclassmen and friends, however, I was able to overcome this challenge by learning from the methods of which they used to overcome similar difficulties. Although as a commuter socializing and keeping up with school activities can be a little challenging, one's balance is established life as a college student becomes a lot more enjoyable.
Furthermore, my academic experience at UMD has been unexpected and challenging thus far. While I was aware that college came with obstacles and struggles, the aspects of studies in which I faced difficulties were unexpected. As a first-year college student, I expected my courses to be a little light weighted in terms of difficulties and workload. This however was the complete opposite and the hard reality took me off guard. While in high school, I never had difficulties with course workload regardless of the class level of which I took. As, a result, during my first semester, I took seven courses in hopes that I would be able to handle the workload smoothly just like I did with my high school courses. While some of my college courses such as INAG110 did feel like a normal high school class in terms of class population and the overall course work as a whole, my other main courses such as math, chem, and biology were a lot broader and came along with difficulties. As a student, I often face difficulties if I miss my lectures and as such one of my main goals has always been to attend all of my class lectures. However, although this goal was accomplished, I still had difficulties keeping up with coursework and prepping for exams. Similarly, because my core classes were border in studies and I had a habit of studying for exams a day or a few days right before, my performance on my first midterm was disappointing. Although classwork, homework, and quizzes were quite manageable, my performance on midterms made me realize that I needed to utilize the office more, spread out studying, change my studying habits, as well as participate in more study groups. Once this aspect was put into practice as well as other study methods such as practice questions, quizlets, and flashcards, my overall performance on midterms improved and since from there, my new study habits have been improving my test-taking skills on a daily.
As a student at the University Of Maryland, I partake in the Science and Global Change Scholars program. Once I was accepted into the UMD scholars program, I decided on the Science and Global Change program firstly based on interest and secondly as a way to gain a broader view of the world to explore various career interests. While in this program, I have taken part in activities such as the metro haunt activity, service day as well as a trip to NYC. Overall, the program has been really interesting and I have been able to learn some key aspects from my SGC surrounding as well as make new friends. Additionally, course-wise, the lessons taught in class have been relevant and useful especially since I take a biology course that is based on biodiversity. Although the class is quite informative, I thought the focus would be purposely on global change and possible ways to approach the issue. Although what we have been studying in class isn’t directed towards global change specifically, I believe the main purpose of the information we are learning thus far is to give us a base structure and exemplify both the past and present of our environment so we could better understand how global change affects it.
In a short statement based on my experience at UMD and as an SGS student, I would like to advise future SGC students to expect the unexpected but shouldn’t allow these unfamiliar aspects to be a barrier that withstands them from accomplishing their goals. While college life might be full of excitement and adventures, you should always keep in mind your main goals and be cautious of your actions to avoid uncertainties. In general, college is a new life experience for you to explore so make the best of it.